Days Gone By
by Person4
Summary: When Lulu was eight her parents were killed by Sin, and she vowed to help defeat it.  When she was eleven she got her first chance.
1. Days Gone By: Prologue

None of the characters are mine, I'm just borrowing them.  
  
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When Lulu was born her father burst into tears and couldn't stop crying for a good half hour, while her mother looked on with a sort of fond bemusement. They took her home to a brightly coloured nursery full of fluffy toys. They called her their miracle, since they'd believed they couldn't have children.  
  
When she was three she dragged her favourite cactaur doll through a mud puddle. When her mother took it away for washing she threw a fit, and at it's peak threw off several tiny sparks of electricity. Her parents were amazed when they realised she was one of the rare people born with a mage's talents.  
  
When she was six she began training at the church to master her powers. She was the first natural black mage born in Besaid in over thirty years, and, as is always the case of those few gifted people, she took to magic like a fish to water. At the same time she became friends with two boys whose parents worked in the temple. The three quickly became close, and it was a rare day when they couldn't be found giggling together over some mischief they'd made.  
  
When she was eight, Sin attacked Besaid. Lulu and her friends were in the sea playing blitzball at the time, and their frantic parents made their way down there despite the risk. They managed to get to their children, and dragged them toward the town with sin spawn hounding their steps, but were cut off from the main path. With no other options, they threw their children over the cliff into the lake leading to the track. It was all they could do to hold off the beasts until their children had swam to safety, but they died in the attempt.  
  
After three months the church managed to track down her closest relative, a cousin several times removed named Ginnem. She barely out of childhood herself, and studying to be a summoner at Macalania Temple, but she packed up everything she owned and moved her training to Besaid. She found a solemn, sad-eyed child waiting for her, a drastic change from the bubbly girl Lulu had been. Only the younger boy, Chappu, was able to lift her from her depressed state with any regularity. Mainly she just threw herself into her training, adding lessons in weapons on top of magic.  
  
When she was 10 Ginnem was officially made an apprentice summoner. Around the same time Lulu's skills as a mage surpassed those of her teacher, and she replaced those lessons with shuriken fighting. She had finally moved past grieving her parents death, but it was clear to everyone, though never spoken, that she fully intended to go with Ginnem when her pilgrimage began. No one tried to persuade her against it, Ginnem hadn't grown close to anyone other then Lulu during her time there, and a summoner with a child guardian was better then one with no guardian at all, especially with a child such as Lulu.  
  
When she was eleven Ginnem was granted Valefor's powers, and began her pilgrimage with Lulu at her side.  
  
Before the year was out Ginnem was dead, Sin defeated, and Lulu's body drastically weakened for life.  
  
This is their story. 


	2. Days Gone By: Chapter One

Days Gone By  
Chapter Two  
  
Despite all my wishes, I own nothing.  
  
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"Feeling better?"  
  
Lulu glared at Ginnem, who seemed as at home on the boat as she did safe at home in the temple. On the other hand, Lulu's stomach felt like there was a flan trapped inside it trying desperately to ooze out any way it could find. She'd stayed in bed for most of the two days they'd been at sea, only leaving the room in desperate dashes to the lavatory so she wouldn't throw up all over the room.   
  
Ginnem just laughed at the look, and handed Lulu a potion. "Here Lu, drink up. The sailors say that the sea should be calming tonight, so I'm sure you'll feel better then.  
  
Lulu drank down the potion, sighing in relief as it soothed the churning in her stomach. She knew she should have turned it down, they didn't have enough money saved up to restock if she used up their potions on a belly ache, but she was so sick of this that she no longer cared. It's not like having one potion less was going to kill them. She pushed herself into a sitting position, and smiled gratefully at Ginnem. "Thanks. Did they say when we'd get to Kilika?"  
  
"Tomorrow afternoon, if they're right about it clearing up. A few more days if they're wrong. Really, Lu, we should consider ourselves lucky. A stormy sea may be less pleasant to travel on, but at least Sin stays away from rough waters. What would we have done if we'd run into him on the trip?"  
  
"I'm your guardian, aren't I? I'd protect you."  
  
"I appreciate the sentiment Lulu, but I'd rather you didn't have to try. Anyway, I just came down to tell you that a priest from the Kilika temple is on board, and has agreed to let us stay there for a few days before we move on. So, you'll have a chance to rest up before the next ship."  
  
"Oh, good... Couldn't we just swim to Luca?"  
  
Ginnem laughed softly at that. "If you really want you can try, but I'm taking the boat. Now, lie down and try to get some sleep while the potion's effects last, all right?" She gently pushed Lulu down into the bed and tucked the covers in around her, then stood up. "Now, if you're feeling better tomorrow I'll take you to see the chocobos. Would you like that?"  
  
Lulu mumbled an affirmative and curled up around her ratty old cactaur doll. She hadn't been able to get much sleep the past few days, her upset stomach keeping her awake, and hadn't realised how tired she really was until now. She sighed contentedly as Ginnem reached out and began stroking her hair, and softly singing the Hymn of Thanks used at harvest time, Lulu's favourite. Soon she was lulled to sleep.   
  
Ginnem carefully got up, making sure not to make any loud noises that would wake Lulu. She quietly left the room and went up on deck, where a sailor met her.  
  
"So," he said, "did the medicine work?"  
  
"Very well, thank you." She laughed softly, leaning against the railing around the ship. "Out of everything I imagined might go wrong on my pilgrimage, I never thought sea sickness might be a problem."  
  
He smiled at her, though it didn't quite reach his eyes. "I will pray to Yevon, My Lady, that sea sickness is the worst difficulty you'll have to surpass." He the quickly walked away she could reply.  
  
She wasn't upset at this display of rudeness. Most people hated talking about the pilgrimage to a summoner's face. There was too much guilt over what they were asking summoner's to do in order to defeat Sin, even though they knew full well it was impossible for anyone to be forced into it. If someone had the summoner's gift but not the will to use it then the fayth would simply refuse to give them aeons.  
  
Besides, she wanted to be alone anyway. She leaned forward, the wind whiping her hair around her face, and stared out at the turbulent sea and remembering the first time she had made this voyage. She had been seventeen when Macalania temple had received a message for her saying that a cousin she hadn't even known existed had recently been orphaned. At the time she'd considered having Lulu brought there, but Ginnem had known that losing her parent's must have been traumatic enough for the girl, and she couldn't bring herself to ask Lulu to leave her home behind as well. So she'd packed up her life into a handful of boxes and came to Besaid.  
  
She had seen the sea for the first time on the trip there. She remembered how entranced she'd felt by it, a feeling that had never fully left her during her four years living by it's shores. She'd never fully understood how something as horrible as Sin could be hidden in a place so beautiful. She supposed her teachers would have told her there was a lesson to be learned in that.  
  
Now she wanted to do her best to imbed it's image in her mind, so she could have the memory transferred to a sphere in Luca and pull it out whenever she wanted while on the long walk to Zanarkand. It might make money a little tight for awhile, but there was nothing she wanted more. After all, once they were past Luca then one way or another she'd never see the sea again.  
  
She sighed, rested her chin on her hands, and stared, unblinking, towards the horizon. 


End file.
